To Understand a Deaf Child essays

To Understand a Deaf Child essays When Coles parents find out he is deaf his mother makes an attempt to communicate with Cole. By taking classes to help her learn signs and to understand sign language. Coles father on the other hand does not go to the classes with his wife and makes no real attempt to communicate with Cole. The father uses his wife as an interpreter to help him know what Cole is saying. I was shocked when I saw Coles dad not making an effort to communicate with Cole. Most parents of deaf children devote most of their time to their children, but Coles father did not. Instead Coles father did everything opposite of what he should have. Instead of taking the class, he put more effort into his work life. I thought that was ridiculous how he spent more time with other children that he taught instead of his own son, that I think was very stupid. Even though he was providing food and shelter for his family, thats all he did. He did not provide much love at all, to Cole anyways. Another way Coles going deaf effected his life was his relationship with his father. Instead of playing ball or doing stuff together they did stuff separate. Cole would go on with his life and his father would go on with his work life, not paying much attention to Cole at all. I think that if Coles father put a little more time into Cole instead of his work life they would have had a much better relationship. The fight they had when Cole opened up all the windows and him and his father got in an argument opened up Mr. Hollands eyes. As you know nearing the end of the movie Cole and his father were closer then they ever were in Coles entire life. I think if Cole and Mr. Holland had not had that argument then Mr. Holland would have never realized that he never pays attention to his son. I really dont think that Coles deafness actually effected his life. One reason is that Cole did almos ...

Adverse Effects Of Technology On Student Learning

Adverse Effects Of Technology On Student Learning As I was sitting in my room one night reading through articles on technology and its effect on education, a single idea sparked my interest in the topic: how students in my generation were being seen as negatively affected in the academic sphere by the advent of the iPhone, iPads, and constant television streaming. This idea got me thinking about my own life and use of technology both inside and outside the walls of my high school. It is hard for me to imagine a life without my devices, but the concerns by teachers across America are almost impossible to ignore. In today’s society, technology is a huge part of the lives of the current generation of high school students and will be even more ingrained in the lives of younger generations. The use of technology in schools will not slow down in the future, it will only grow more rapidly each year. Technology in education has caused students to lose focus in the classroom and become less analytical problem-solvers in regards to cri tical thinking questions. Clearly, the use of technological devices in the niche of education hampers the learning ability of students in the classroom. Initially, technology use in educational settings impedes students’ focus on scholastic tasks. Obviously, students do not always regard school as entertaining. Historically, students that were uninterested in a subject or lesson would often not have a way to escape from listening to the teacher; however, in today’s culture, students can turn to a tiny, pocket-sized treasure chest of games on their cell phone when they get bored in class. As technological advances have evolved, cell phones have made it easier and more accessible for students to become distracted from learning. Writer for the New York Times, Matt Richtel, in his article for the Times, â€Å"Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say†, published in the New York Times on November 1, 2012, addresses the topic of technology in education and argues that students have minimized the ability to focus on schoolwork since the technological boom. He supports this claim by examining one large-scale survey conducted by the Pew Internet Project, a branch of the Pew Research group, then analyzing another large-scale survey conducted by Vicky Rideout of Common Sense Media, a non-profit, San Francisco-based organization which counsels parents on childhood media use, and finally he uses interviews from teachers who spend time daily observing students in their classrooms. Richtel’s purpose is to show that students of the current generation have shifted dramatically in their approaches to learning and how the impact of technology has made it more difficult for students to keep attention on their responsibilities in school in order to help educators and parents rethink the amount of use of technology their student should be allowed to use. From the article, Richtel claims that, â€Å"There is a widespread belief among teachers that students’ constant use of digital technology is hampering their attention spans,† and this quote is spot-on in the culture of our soci ety. In Richtel’s quote, he illuminates how teachers, the people spending almost eight hours a day with students, have been seeing a noticeable decline in their students’ ability to focus on specific tasks in academia. If teachers, given their extensive time spent with students, have all had a similar experience with students’ waning attention spans, it is hard to discount that evidence against students. Evidently, teachers have been noticing as obvious degeneration in students’ ability to focus since the introduction of technological devices in student possession. Likewise, in the New York Times article, â€Å"Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction† (2010), author Matt Richtel, writer for the New York Times, asserts that the attention spans of contemporary students has diminished and suggests that technology is to blame for the decline. He backs up this claim by doing the following: first, he begins the article as the story of seventeen-year-old Vishal, a once bright and attentive student who’s grades have plummeted since he discovered technology in seventh grade, next, he uses research done by a Duke University professor and The Kaiser Family Foundation to supplement his thesis, last, he includes more stories of students and how they feel their use of technology has impacted their academic life. In this article, Richtel states, that â€Å"Several recent studies show that young people tend to use home computers for entertainment, not learning, and that this can hurt school performance, particularly in low-income families.â €  This quote is significant because, Richtel explains how studies that have been done in the recent past have supported the thesis of home computers being used by students for purposes other than those that are educational. For example, students at home may use their computers for social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or video streaming sites like YouTube instead of using the computer to play learning-centered games, read e-books, or work on homework. Furthermore, students are also apt to spend more time on these non-educational sites than on sites which could help them study for quizzes and tests or further their knowledge on subjects that they are not strong in and thus, hindering academic performance. It is well-defined that it is tremendously easy for students to lose focus on academic subjects while distracted by technology. Additionally, technology in education has also been shown to lessen the amount of critical thinking done by students in complex problems. Matt Richtel also discusses the topic of reduced problem-solving skills in his article â€Å"Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say†. In this article, Richtel states, â€Å"Lisa Baldwin, 48, a high school teacher in Great Barrington, Mass., [who] said students’ ability to focus and fight through academic challenges was suffering an ‘exponential decline’.† He goes on further to say that, â€Å"She said she was the decline most sharply in students whose parents allowed unfettered access to television, phones, iPads and video games.† Clearly, teachers have taken notice of the decline of students’ critical thinking skills in recent years. Whether it be in math, science, English, or any other subject, there will always be challenges to students that they may not be necessarily confident on how to solve the anticipated problem. As technology advances, students will be more enabled to use the internet to find the answers to such complicated problems instead of learning how to work through them, which will in turn, cause them to slowly lose the critical thinking skills necessary to adulthood. As in the quote from Ms. Baldwin, the â€Å"academic challenges† that are proposed to students will not just go away with the evolution of technology, and students will have to become more skilled problem-solvers than they currently are in order to succeed academically. The importance of preserving problem-solving skills in future generations is unimaginable, and it is recognizably a problem that many teachers, including Ms. Baldwin, are experiencing. Moreover, the ability of students to solve multifaceted problems has also been recognized by students to be a clear issue in education due to the use of technology. Matt Richtel also discusses the topic of the weakening ability of students to solve complex problems in his article â€Å"Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction†. In his article, Richtel observes the class of teacher Marcia Blondel, an expert teacher, who has been forced to resort to reading aloud in a senior English class because students have lacked the ability to read the assigned passages at home. Ms. Blondel states, â€Å"You can’t become a good writer by watching YouTube, texting and e-mailing a bunch of abbreviations.† This quote shows how teachers like Ms. Blondel are particularly alert to the fact that student learning capacities have taken a considerable shift from students being proactive to barely reading an assigned group of pages in a senior English class. It is more than understand able for an elementary-level English class to verbally read passages in class to bolster comprehension, but in a high school-level class, verbal reading is almost non-existent. The claim made by Ms. Blondel is not uncommon, technology has taken over aspects of students’ lives that were once filled by semi-meaningful actions. Discernibly, the use of technology has significantly hampered students’ ability to solve intricate problems. Conclusively, technology in education has huge implications on student achievement. The use of digital devices in educational settings has impeded on this culture’s students’ ability to focus and maintain attention in the classroom, as well as technology diminishing the ability of students to solve complex mental problems presented in classroom situations. Clearly, the use of technology in education has had a negative impact on today’s society’s students in the areas of focus and problem-solving. This thesis is bad for our culture because unless a restriction is placed on technology use by students, the dependency on technology will only grow and the problems proposed in the thesis will only become exacerbated by future generations of students. As thousands of students enter the school system each scholastic year, it is necessary to understand the true impact that iPhones, iPads, television, and video games have on developing minds. It is up to educators and parents to change this growing trend.

Business for multi national Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business for multi national - Essay Example There is a concept of separate legal identity which differentiates the assets of the company from its owners. However, in the case of Maxwell, the funds of different organizations were used by him as if they were his own money which is contradicting not only the ethical aspect, but also the accounting aspect of ownership and control. Maxwell should have only used the funds of the company; even those funds should have been used after the approval from board. Maxwell used the funds of pension funds which belonged to employees and used them as collateral. This is an open violation of agency theory. The theory states that the trustees or people who control the movement of funds are the agents acting on the behalf of the true owners of those resources and they should make the best possible decision for the resources that are entrusted to them. When the ownership and control are exercised in the disadvantage of the stakeholders than the relationship between the agents and principal is terminated. Then any loss accruing from the misuse of funds or resources accrues to the agent and not the principal. Maxwell’s share of loss in this case should have been larger and he should have been burdened with all the resources that were due to his actions as an agent acting without the consent of principal. Maxwell disadvantaged the other stakeholders for the benefit of his own company. This is again something that is unacceptable from the ethical point of view and also from the regulatory and business point of view. The stakeholders suffered and in the end, Maxwell and his company suffered badly also. However, the funds that were loss due to his carelessness were not recovered and it can be seen in this case that when agent does something on this own behalf he is probably using the motive of self interest. That is one reason why law makers have developed the concept of â€Å"Board of Directors† that have to be consulted with so that

WE 1 & 2CRJ 520 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

WE 1 & 2CRJ 520 - Essay Example Different individuals are required by the law to go for counseling sessions while others are ordered by doctors when their health is wanting due to increased consumption of drugs and thus the need to deter them, rehabilitation, incapacitation and retribution. Through deterrence, criminals are deterred from their actions and thus the criminal justice system using harsh penalties to try and deter them from engaging in criminal related issues. On the other hand, retribution justifies the punishment and thus the criminals are punished for their wrong deed to the society so that a repeat for the same will never be conducted. Rehabilitation ensures that through counseling and guidance transformation of individuals is achieved while incapacitation ensures that the criminal will be behind the bars for a period of time so that one will not commit crime again. When individuals are behind the bars serving for the criminal offence that was conducted, some may transform and others get worse and they will do anything so that they can be incapacitated again. The high numbers of individuals who are behind the bars are mothers and fathers who are serving in different prisons thus not carrying their responsibilities. The gap between the father and mother figure is important in the growth and development of child thus the trend will continue of incapacitation which is expensive to the government and to the society. Though incapacitation is seen as the only method to deal with criminals it can not solve the problem rather it will be continuous trend from generation to generations. Due to high number of criminals in the society, the government is building a lot of prisons so that they can isolate the criminals from the society. The government is using millions of dollars to construct prisons using taxpayer’s money which would be used to stabilize the economy and support

Atrocities In Afganistan (Women) Essay -- essays research papers fc

(NOTE TO STUDENT: my teacher gave me a B+ and said I would have had an A if I had had more detail on the Taliban's reasons for these laws) The women of Afghanistan have been enduring unfathomable suffering since the Taliban, a religious faction, seized control of the country in 1996. (NOTE TO STUDENT: my teacher gave me a B+ and said I would have had an A if I had had more detail on the Taliban's reasons for these laws) Since 1996 Afghan women have been living fear for their safety and lives. A myriad of discriminating laws has been placed on Afghan women. The punishments for violating these laws are unimaginably inhuman.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Taliban is an ultra-fundamentalist group that has 90 percent of Afghanistan under its control (Taliban). When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 Islamic factions united to expel the Russian occupiers from Afghanistan (Afghanistan). The new government that had formed soon collapsed from the deep-rooted ethnic and religious differences of its members (Afghanistan). The Taliban emerged victorious from the ensuing civil war to establish a reign of terror on the Afghan people (Afghanistan).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The women of Afghanistan have ended up bearing most of the weight from the oppressive hand of the Taliban. A woman is no longer allowed to be seen in public with out wearing a cumbersome burqa, a robe that covers the entire body from head to toe with only a small mesh screen to see and breath through. â€Å"I feel like I am invisible.† Claims one woman, â€Å"Nobody knows whether I’m smiling or crying†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She then explains how hard it is to see through the mesh screen (Shanahan). There have been accounts of women being run over by tanks because they couldn’t see through their burqa (Shanahan). Not only are women not allowed in public without the burqa, they must also be accompanied by a mahram, a male relative, when outside their homes (Women). When they are inside their homes, women must have the blinds pulled or the windows painted black so others can’t see them from the street (Women). A Taliban representative explains the logic behind these laws: â€Å"The face of a woman is a source of corruption for men who are not related to them.† (Women). So what does a woman do when she needs to go outside and there is no man to accompany her? One woman was shot while running through the streets with her sick child. ... ...ghts restored.† (Women). Although then UN and various countries condemn the Taliban for their disregard for the life and welfare of Afghan women, no aggressive actions have been taken.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Clearly the harsh laws and punishments the Taliban have created are unjust and wrong. Since the Taliban base their laws on religious believes it would be difficult for anyone to â€Å"talk them out of it†. There are many countries and organizations that are opposed to the Taliban’s treatment of women. I believe the Taliban will never gain recognition as a legitimate government from these countries unless they change drastically and it is only a matter of time before the Taliban fall. Works Cited â€Å"Afghanistan.† Nutshellnotes. Online> 28 Jan. 2000. Shanahan, Noreen. â€Å"Fighting gender apartheid in Afghanistan.† Herizons. V>13 (3). (Fall’99): 23-25. â€Å"Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan!† The Feminist Majority Foundation. Online. 20 Feb. 2000. â€Å"Taliban publicly execute woman murderer.† Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Online. 17 Nov. 1999. â€Å"Women in Afghanistan: The violations continue.† Amnesty International. Online. June 1997.

Summary Response

Agents of Change and Nonviolent Action* Nonviolent action is a way for ordinary people to fight for their rights, freedom, and justice. It is frequently associated with moral or ethical nonviolence, but I will address it here as a distinct phenomenon, separate from any moral or ethical underpinnings, to expand on how it works as a pragmatic way to exert leverage in a conflict. Nonviolent action is based on the insight that power in a society is ultimately derived from people’s consent and obedience.In contrast, the prevailing view is that power in a society is inherently based on whoever has concentrated wealth and the greatest capacity for violence. But just as the economy is a subsystem of the biosphere— and therefore is ultimately governed by the laws of the biosphere—so too, systems of power that are seemingly based on violence and money are actually subsystems of thousands or millions of people’s broader behavior and obedience patterns.If those people shift their loyalties, behavior, and obedience, the balance of power in a society, and in the world, shifts. Simply put, if people do not obey, then rulers or corporations cannot rule. Nonviolent action, therefore, wields power by creating shifts in people’s loyalties, behavior and obedience patterns at a collective level. This can happen dramatically, for example as it did at moments during the Indian Independence Struggle, the US Civil Rights Movement, various labor struggles (i. . the United Farm Workers movement in the mid-late 1960s), and the downfall of Ferdinand Marcos (1986), Augusto Pinochet (1988), Apartheid in South Africa (1980s-90s), Slobodan Milosevic (2000), and the authoritarian system in Ukraine (2004). Or, shifts can happen more subtly, as when people choose to shop at locally owned businesses, boycott a product, or work to develop alternative institutions and economies.Regardless of its myriad of methods and manifestations, all acts of nonviolent action fa ll into one of three categories: acts of 1 Â © 2008 Hardy Merriman. *A slightly modified version of this essay appeared in: Conservation Biology, Volume 22, No. 2, April 2008 pp. 241-2. commission—that is, people do things that they are not expected, supposed, or allowed to do; acts of omission—that is, people do not do things that they are expected, supposed, or required to do; or a combination of acts of commission and omission. In order to promote shifts in people’s obedience and behavior patterns, it is important to understand why people obey and behave as they do in the first place. Reasons will differ from society to society, but two of the most common reasons for obedience that I encounter in my work with activists and organizers around the world are that people feel there is no alternative way of behaving and they lack confidence that their actions make a difference. Many people have forgotten that they are the true power holders in their society.Of cou rse formal education, corporations, governments, and media all reinforce the narrative that power resides among the few individuals in a government building or corporate headquarters, and that money and guns (on which they have a monopoly) are the ultimate source of strength. This narrative suits their purposes well. Successful nonviolent movements throughout history, however, have awakened people to the fact that through their collective actions, people who are organized around a common vision and act strategically are far stronger than armies and money.Any contemporary grassroots movement that wants to gain traction should take note of this fact and make reminding people that they are powerful a central point of its rhetoric. Taking this one step further, successful movements not only tell people that they are powerful, they demonstrate people’s power by setting clear, achievable objectives and then documenting and publicizing their victories. The victories themselves may b e limited, but their impact on mobilizing people can be enormous.For example, the US Civil Rights Movement concentrated its strength on desegregating buses in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955-56 and desegregating Nashville lunch counters in 1960. The Indian Independence Movement focused its effort on gaining concessions from the British on the Salt Acts and others laws in 1930-31. Once achieved, these objectives were small 1 Gene Sharp, Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential, (Boston, MA: Porter Sargent Publishers), 2005, p. 547. 2 Â © 2008 Hardy Merriman. A slightly modified version of this essay appeared in: Conservation Biology, Volume 22, No. 2, April 2008 pp. 241-2. relative to the mammoth task of overturning segregation in the entire US South or gaining independence in India. But their true impact was in their catalyzing effect on the movements themselves. These victories showed people that their actions mattered and that they were capable of making a difference, which led to great increases in support and mobilization and propelled these movements to the national and international center stage.These objectives were not achieved merely because the US Civil Rights Movement or the Indian Independence Movement occupied the moral high ground. They were achieved also because of hard work, creativity, and skillful political analysis. This is true of all successful nonviolent action. However, many neglect this fact and instead assume that nonviolent action consists primarily of public protests, expressions of outrage, and moral injunctions, or that its success depends on a charismatic leader or some sort of mystical power. It does not.Nor does it require people who are ideologically committed to pacifism or ethical nonviolence. What it does require is an inclusive vision that unites people, sound strategic planning, effective public communications, and the identification of appropriate methods for the situation. There is no one -size-fits-all recipe—nonviolent action is place-specific. While the principles that govern it, such as power being based on consent and obedience, are constant across all struggles, its application depends on the context and particulars of a given society.Whether it manifests as bold public action, subtle shifts in buying patterns, or both (most movements have a wide variety of tactics that are designed to be used by people with different levels of involvement), it provides a way for people to use or create political space in their society from which to leverage concessions from an entrenched adversary. Fortunately, a lot of intellectual work, research, and communication have been done about how people can use, and historically have used, nonviolent action to achieve great results.Demand for this knowledge is increasing among those who recognize the power and potential that nonviolent action holds. You won’t read about this in most 3 Â © 2008 Hardy Merriman. *A sligh tly modified version of this essay appeared in: Conservation Biology, Volume 22, No. 2, April 2008 pp. 241-2. newspapers, and you won’t find a lot of politicians talking about it, but if you talk to grassroots organizers and members of civil society around the world, they will tell you. They recognize that it is the people in a society who are the agents of change and that structural change is created from the ground up.They are not waiting for a person to lead them, because they understand that most government and corporate leaders will not take the lead to do what is right if their populations are disengaged and do not know the means to hold them accountable. Therefore, people around the world are increasingly looking towards nonviolent action (which they may use in conjunction with voting, the legal system, or other traditional means of making change) as a pragmatic way to empower their communities to win human rights, freedom, justice, transparency, women’s, indige nous people’s and minority rights and environmental protection.Regardless of the objective for which nonviolent action is used, its prerequisite is the same: a reframing of the concept of power in people’s minds. Sharing this knowledge, and awakening people to their power, is an essential task in shifting humanity’s course. 4 Â © 2008 Hardy Merriman. *A slightly modified version of this essay appeared in: Conservation Biology, Volume 22, No. 2, April 2008 pp. 241-2. Summary Response Agents of Change and Nonviolent Action* Nonviolent action is a way for ordinary people to fight for their rights, freedom, and justice. It is frequently associated with moral or ethical nonviolence, but I will address it here as a distinct phenomenon, separate from any moral or ethical underpinnings, to expand on how it works as a pragmatic way to exert leverage in a conflict. Nonviolent action is based on the insight that power in a society is ultimately derived from people’s consent and obedience.In contrast, the prevailing view is that power in a society is inherently based on whoever has concentrated wealth and the greatest capacity for violence. But just as the economy is a subsystem of the biosphere— and therefore is ultimately governed by the laws of the biosphere—so too, systems of power that are seemingly based on violence and money are actually subsystems of thousands or millions of people’s broader behavior and obedience patterns.If those people shift their loyalties, behavior, and obedience, the balance of power in a society, and in the world, shifts. Simply put, if people do not obey, then rulers or corporations cannot rule. Nonviolent action, therefore, wields power by creating shifts in people’s loyalties, behavior and obedience patterns at a collective level. This can happen dramatically, for example as it did at moments during the Indian Independence Struggle, the US Civil Rights Movement, various labor struggles (i. . the United Farm Workers movement in the mid-late 1960s), and the downfall of Ferdinand Marcos (1986), Augusto Pinochet (1988), Apartheid in South Africa (1980s-90s), Slobodan Milosevic (2000), and the authoritarian system in Ukraine (2004). Or, shifts can happen more subtly, as when people choose to shop at locally owned businesses, boycott a product, or work to develop alternative institutions and economies.Regardless of its myriad of methods and manifestations, all acts of nonviolent action fa ll into one of three categories: acts of 1 Â © 2008 Hardy Merriman. *A slightly modified version of this essay appeared in: Conservation Biology, Volume 22, No. 2, April 2008 pp. 241-2. commission—that is, people do things that they are not expected, supposed, or allowed to do; acts of omission—that is, people do not do things that they are expected, supposed, or required to do; or a combination of acts of commission and omission. In order to promote shifts in people’s obedience and behavior patterns, it is important to understand why people obey and behave as they do in the first place. Reasons will differ from society to society, but two of the most common reasons for obedience that I encounter in my work with activists and organizers around the world are that people feel there is no alternative way of behaving and they lack confidence that their actions make a difference. Many people have forgotten that they are the true power holders in their society.Of cou rse formal education, corporations, governments, and media all reinforce the narrative that power resides among the few individuals in a government building or corporate headquarters, and that money and guns (on which they have a monopoly) are the ultimate source of strength. This narrative suits their purposes well. Successful nonviolent movements throughout history, however, have awakened people to the fact that through their collective actions, people who are organized around a common vision and act strategically are far stronger than armies and money.Any contemporary grassroots movement that wants to gain traction should take note of this fact and make reminding people that they are powerful a central point of its rhetoric. Taking this one step further, successful movements not only tell people that they are powerful, they demonstrate people’s power by setting clear, achievable objectives and then documenting and publicizing their victories. The victories themselves may b e limited, but their impact on mobilizing people can be enormous.For example, the US Civil Rights Movement concentrated its strength on desegregating buses in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955-56 and desegregating Nashville lunch counters in 1960. The Indian Independence Movement focused its effort on gaining concessions from the British on the Salt Acts and others laws in 1930-31. Once achieved, these objectives were small 1 Gene Sharp, Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential, (Boston, MA: Porter Sargent Publishers), 2005, p. 547. 2 Â © 2008 Hardy Merriman. A slightly modified version of this essay appeared in: Conservation Biology, Volume 22, No. 2, April 2008 pp. 241-2. relative to the mammoth task of overturning segregation in the entire US South or gaining independence in India. But their true impact was in their catalyzing effect on the movements themselves. These victories showed people that their actions mattered and that they were capable of making a difference, which led to great increases in support and mobilization and propelled these movements to the national and international center stage.These objectives were not achieved merely because the US Civil Rights Movement or the Indian Independence Movement occupied the moral high ground. They were achieved also because of hard work, creativity, and skillful political analysis. This is true of all successful nonviolent action. However, many neglect this fact and instead assume that nonviolent action consists primarily of public protests, expressions of outrage, and moral injunctions, or that its success depends on a charismatic leader or some sort of mystical power. It does not.Nor does it require people who are ideologically committed to pacifism or ethical nonviolence. What it does require is an inclusive vision that unites people, sound strategic planning, effective public communications, and the identification of appropriate methods for the situation. There is no one -size-fits-all recipe—nonviolent action is place-specific. While the principles that govern it, such as power being based on consent and obedience, are constant across all struggles, its application depends on the context and particulars of a given society.Whether it manifests as bold public action, subtle shifts in buying patterns, or both (most movements have a wide variety of tactics that are designed to be used by people with different levels of involvement), it provides a way for people to use or create political space in their society from which to leverage concessions from an entrenched adversary. Fortunately, a lot of intellectual work, research, and communication have been done about how people can use, and historically have used, nonviolent action to achieve great results.Demand for this knowledge is increasing among those who recognize the power and potential that nonviolent action holds. You won’t read about this in most 3 Â © 2008 Hardy Merriman. *A sligh tly modified version of this essay appeared in: Conservation Biology, Volume 22, No. 2, April 2008 pp. 241-2. newspapers, and you won’t find a lot of politicians talking about it, but if you talk to grassroots organizers and members of civil society around the world, they will tell you. They recognize that it is the people in a society who are the agents of change and that structural change is created from the ground up.They are not waiting for a person to lead them, because they understand that most government and corporate leaders will not take the lead to do what is right if their populations are disengaged and do not know the means to hold them accountable. Therefore, people around the world are increasingly looking towards nonviolent action (which they may use in conjunction with voting, the legal system, or other traditional means of making change) as a pragmatic way to empower their communities to win human rights, freedom, justice, transparency, women’s, indige nous people’s and minority rights and environmental protection.Regardless of the objective for which nonviolent action is used, its prerequisite is the same: a reframing of the concept of power in people’s minds. Sharing this knowledge, and awakening people to their power, is an essential task in shifting humanity’s course. 4 Â © 2008 Hardy Merriman. *A slightly modified version of this essay appeared in: Conservation Biology, Volume 22, No. 2, April 2008 pp. 241-2.

Arab Military Performance During The World War II

Within the modern military era, Arabic-speaking armies have traditionally shown themselves to generally ineffective. From the 1960s, where Egyptian regular forces performed poorly against Yemeni irregulars, to the ‘70s, where the Syrians only managed to impose their will upon Lebanon through the utilisation of their overwhelming weight of weaponry and numbers. The Iraqis army demonstrated their own ineptitude in the 1980s, firstly with their wars with Iran, where their opponents were in possession of an army ripped apart by internal revolutionary turmoil showed ineptness against an Iranian military ripped apart by revolutionary turmoil in the 1980s, and secondly in their failure to win a three-decades-long war against the Kurds. Even with the intervention of Western powers, Arab military performance has remained poor, especially on both sides of the 1990 Kuwait war, where they performance was at best mediocre.4 Despite all these examples however, the primary military area in which Arabic armies have performed poorly is in their wars with Israel, where despite three Arabic attempts to conquer Israel with conventional warfare in 1948, 1967 and 1973, Israel has always emerged victorious. And the Arabs have done poorly in nearly all the military confrontations with Israel. In an article for the Middle East Quarterly in 1999 titled â€Å"Why Arabs Lose Wars†, Norvell De Atkine, a U.S. Army retired colonel with eight years residence in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, and a graduateShow MoreRelatedThe Contributions Of The Cold War In The Middle East1507 Words   |  7 Pagesit’s in the Imperial period, the Cold War era, or the era of modern proxy conflict, Middle Eastern states have been willing customers of foreign arms. Foreign armament has been justified as an attempt to generate regional stability and facilitate the modernization of Middle Eastern states, but as the case of Saudi Arabia shows, can quickly lead to repressive acts. The first foreign contributions to Middle Eastern military power came with reform attempts during the Ottoman Empire. The mid to late 19thRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie The Siege 1724 Words   |  7 Pages â€Å"Annotation† Sometimes the film world and scholarly arts have an uncanny way of prophesy. One movie having disturbing and overwhelming similarities to those of the events on Sept. 11 tragedy is â€Å"The Siege†. The plot in this movie foresees what may transpire after a key U.S. city (New York) becomes the object of a terrorist attack. Beyond unreal how startlingly comparable the two are. When the U.S. military plots to take captive an important fundamental Islamic terrorist leader and hold him captiveRead MoreThe Global Security And Human Security1544 Words   |  7 Pagesinterdependent and global world and that many of today s threats recognize no national boundaries, are interlinked and must be tackled at the global, regional, and national levels in accordance with the Charter and international law (2005 World Summit Outcome). After the world had entered into the Post-Cold War era, traditional conceptions of security had become the global security and human security. The International Government Organizations (IGOs) and United Nations realized that wars and chaos beganRead MoreThe Suez Canal Crisis2451 Words   |  10 Pagesthreats during the 1950s, it became a crucial turning point for U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Beyond that, this crisis bucked the hundred-year-old status quo of Britain’s monopoly of power in the region. Due to the large flow of cross currents occurring at the same time, such as Egypt’s engagements with the Soviet Union, the British and French reactive policy to losing a foothold in the region, and Israel’s unwillingness to agree to a cease-fire, U.S. foreign policy rather than military interventionRead MoreIran s Iran Nuclear Program And Us Israel Relationship914 Words   |  4 Pagestensions between both countries. But Israel and Saudi Arabia, two allies of the US and adversaries of Iran has opposed the agreement. Iran is till considered a threat to the US national interest and security. The threats can t be eliminated by only military means, but it requires a comprehensive strategy. It is important to reduce the capability of Iran and change its intention. The best possible way to do this is supporting a gradual political transition of power from an extremist religious leaderRead MoreEffects Of Power Fettweis On American Foreign Policy2203 Words   |  9 Pagesimprove U.S. foreign poli cy. However, Fettweis’s Pathologies of Power provides a very interesting and somewhat unusual dig at U.S. foreign policy. In his book Pathologies of Power Fettweis is highly critical of the below average foreign policy performance of the United States over the last few decades and he strives to shed some light on why the U.S. keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over again. In his view, the many blunders in American foreign policy can be attributed to the nation’s deepRead MoreDecolonization Efforts Of Twentieth Century Africa And The Middle East Essay1857 Words   |  8 PagesEfforts of Twentieth-Century Africa and the Middle East Abstract European colonizers fully expected their rules in the Middle East and Africa to extend for the rest of the twentieth-century; however, events leading up to World War II set off forces that helped to transition the Arab and African nationalist challenges to colonial rule and brought about the movement toward freedom presently and much sooner than anticipated. This paper will look to examine two particular regions – the Middle East andRead MoreThe Effects of War on the U.S. Economy3070 Words   |  13 PagesThe Effect of War on the U.S. Economy Over the past two centuries, America has seen her share of wars. Wars that have affected every aspect of her citizens’ lives, perhaps most profoundly of all have been the effects that our economy encounters in times of turmoil. From employment to credit and financial markets to the price of much needed commodities, no aspect of our economy can be said to remain unchanged during any given conflict. With the war in the Middle East entering its seventh year andRead MoreThe Great Leaders Of Time2360 Words   |  10 PagesSaladin (Salah al-Din), born Yusuf ibn Ayyub, shown in this painting, changed the course of history and still influences it today. Saladin lived in Muslim controlled land during the age of the Crusades. He worked his way up the military before taking power in during the Third Crusade. The Crusades saw and bred many great leaders during its time both on the Christian and Muslim side. The Christians saw the likes of Richard I of England, also known as Richard the L ionheart, and Frederick Barbosa whileRead MoreIn 1894 the Modern Olympic Games were created in order to gain back popularity for France that was2800 Words   |  12 Pagesto gain back popularity for France that was lost during the Franco-Prussian War but since then countries have found themselves slipping into the Political Olympics. In 777 B.C. the Ancient Olympics were created in order to show the athletic abilities and the evolution of humans and to encourage peace among the cities of Greece. The Modern Olympics were created in the late 1800’s in order to redeem France after their loss in the Franco-Prussian War, since that point the Games have been politically